This invention relates generally to butchering and particularly to a device for removing breast meat from poultry.
Foodcraft Equipment Company, and several other manufacturers, produce machinery which automates many of the tedious cutting chores once done by hand. One task now receiving attention, because of the premium prices fetched by boneless breasts, is that of producing breast fillets, intact and undamaged.
One popular method of removing breast meat is to pull or peel the meat off the rib cage, rather than cutting it. This is done, after partially separating the shoulder joints, by pulling the wings away from the rib cage, drawing the breast meat with them. Certain preparatory cuts have to be made to free the breast meat partially from the carcass, and to sever the shoulder joint ligaments while allowing the wings to remain tied to the breast meat by flesh and certain tendons. The present invention performs these and other functions.
Some producers would prefer to have the breast meat (mainly the muscle pectoralis major) pulled down on the rib cage, but not totally removed, pending a visual inspection of the product. Of course, they would also prefer to maximize yields by reliably avoiding the bone slivers that can result from cutting with a sharp blade, and by harvesting other minor muscles in the vicinity of the breast, such as the "eye" muscle serratus anterior. This invention provides special devices and methods for achieving these goals.